


Take Me To Church

by SaxuallyActive



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 08:15:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2685659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaxuallyActive/pseuds/SaxuallyActive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'We were born sick,' you heard them say it<br/>My Church offers no absolutes.<br/>She tells me, 'Worship in the bedroom.'<br/>The only heaven I'll be sent to<br/>Is when I'm alone with you—<br/>I was born sick,<br/>But I love it<br/>Command me to be well<br/>Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Me To Church

**Author's Note:**

> One-shot fic inspired by Maddi.

“Let’s run away.”

The question he posed to me in the basement of my family’s church came mid-kiss as we both breathed in. I paused for a moment, thinking that I had misheard him.

_“Clo?”_

I just kissed him again. His hands crept up my ribcage.

“We would get killed.”

“That’s the fun part.”

He’s the giggle at a funeral, he’s the boy every parent is warned about.

We met at church, surprisingly. We’ve been kissing in the basement mop closet for two years. We’ve been drinking Lucky Lagers out in the barn nearly every summer night. I nearly worship this boy, I would follow him to the ends of the world without stopping.

But if my parents found out I was following a _boy—_

“Danny, they would bring the wrath of God down on me.”

“Once more, the fun part.”

_“Danny, mon cher…”_

He just pulls me close for another breathless kiss, it feels like this boy is squeezing all the air out of my lungs.

“For fun, we won’t go far. I have my car and a couple hundred dollars. Let’s spend the night at a shitty motel and get drunk.”

“They would pull me out of Laval so quick.”

“I don’t want to hide anymore.” He doesn’t even kiss me, he just holds me tight.

Hiding is so hard, but I hear my parents all the time: people like us are born sick, but I love it.

“Let’s go.”

Before I know it, we’re running out the back door of the church to his car, hand-in-hand. We get into his shitty Camry and we’re spinning the tires as we leave the parking lot. He’s holding my hand tight. And I look back as we speed out of the lot, and my mother is standing on the church steps in her Sunday best.

“Danny, they know.”

“No, they don’t. For all they know, I left early.”

“My mum was on the steps.”

“Probably wanted to see what the hurry was.”

I look at his speedometer. He’s going almost sixty in a thirty-five.

_“Danny, slow down.”_

“What’s the point of running if you can’t run fast?”

I just hold onto him tighter.

We speed through an empty school zone, and I see cherries lighting up the cab of the car.

“Dammit, Danny.”

He reluctantly pulls over, and the officer comes to his window. I pull my hand away from Danny’s hand.

“License, registration.” He leans against Danny’s car. “Hey, Claude. Did service let out early today?”

“Oy, off the paint job.”

“License. Registration.” The officer snaps.

“Danny, don’t be stupid.” I reach into his glove box and grab his registration. A pack of cigarettes fall out, and the officer peers at Danny. Danny hands him his license and registration. The officer walks off.

“You’re an idiot.” I whisper to him, slapping his thigh.

“Your rep is probably getting us away.”

“Your cigarettes probably aren’t.”

The officer is walking back with Danny’s stuff.

“Okay, Mr. Briere—“

“I told him to slow down, I just think he has too much fun driving this thing.” I say quickly. “He really just needs to think sometimes.”

“—I’m only giving you a warning. Let Claude help you out, he’s a nice, God-fearing boy. You should keep him as your friend. Please drive safely, boys. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

The officer walks off, and Danny slowly drives away.

“You idiot, we could’ve gotten caught.” I say harshly.

“Yeah, yeah.” Danny says. He approaches downtown and pulls into a bank drive through. He puts his card into the ATM and takes out $350. He puts the rest into his checking account. He tells me it wasn’t much, but his idea of “nothing much” is about $250.

We grab some coffee at a Tim Horton’s, and the staff sort of recognizes me. I’m the preacher’s son in a suburb. Essentially, I’m fucked. And Danny keeps brushing his hand against my thigh and it sends sparks up under my skin every time.

I chug my coffee and we hit the highway. He holds my hand the entire way. I leaned the seat back and lay on my side so I can look at him. He’s in his Sunday best. He’s wearing a white dress shirt with a dark blue cardigan and dark jeans that he’s cuffed up so you can see his high top Converse. Me? I’m wearing a dress shirt, sweater, jeans, and a pair of old boots. I look like a hick compared to him. He’s beautiful.

“Danny?”

“Yeah, Clo?”

I smile, my eyelids getting a little heavy.

“I really like you.” I state proudly.

“Oh?” He replies, grinning wildly. “Well, get this: I love you.”

It hits me like a ton of bricks. A man loves me and—

“I love you back.” I laugh a little out of nervousness.

My phone starts ringing. My heart races.

“Don’t pick it up.” Danny tells me. But it’s my mum. I debate for a little then hit ignore. I put my phone in the glove box and lay back down.

We drive for almost two hours until a cop starts trailing Danny down the highway. I know this because he starts bitching about it. I sit up as Danny exits the freeway. The cop still follows us.

“Fuck.” Danny says loudly. We pull into a gas station because Danny needs gas anyways, and the cop pulls in behind us to “get gas too”. I take one of Danny’s twenties and head into the convenience store. The cop follows me.

I grab two bottles of soda and Danny’s favourite candy bar, and the cop is watching every move I make.

“So where are you heading to all dressed up?” He asks me, stepping closer to me as I’m picking out a bag of chips for myself.

“I just got done with church, we’re going—“ I breathe, my throat is dry. “—to the hockey museum in Toronto.”

“Only two hours out, right? You’re halfway there.”

He knows.

“Yeah. Exciting.” I reply.

I walk away from him and pay for my things. But Danny is already in the store, and he walks away from the register as I pay for my things. I meet him at his car. He’s filling his car with gas.

“What’s taking you so long?” I ask softly, hopefully not drawing the attention of the cop.

“My checking account is frozen. They know we ran away.”

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

“Okay.”

We get in his car, and the cop is on his walkie, standing at the door to the convenience store.

Danny starts his car and the cop starts walking towards us quickly. Danny pulls away from the pump and the cop tries running in front of us to stop us. But Danny keeps going. The cop jumps out of the way and Danny speeds off.

My heart is racing but I crack a smile. Adrenaline surges through my veins. Danny laughs. He grabs my hand and we’re off to conquer the world together.

We’re doing okay, until we get an hour outside of Toronto. Two cops start tailing us and Danny is dodging between cars and semis. He’s trying to make sure they don’t get a good read on us. I turn on the radio, trying to listen for any notice they’ve put out about us.

Guess what, they did.

_“Two minors are missing from Gatineau, Quebec. Daniel Briere, eighteen, and Claude Giroux, sixteen. They are in a two thousand three Toyota Camry with license plate number—“_

“Fuck.” Danny says.

_“Daniel is a repeat runaway and may be dangerous. At this point we don’t know if Claude is an accomplice or a hostage.”_

“Danny?” I ask. My heart crawls up my throat.

Danny bites his lip.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I ran away because I figured out what I was and my parents told me to come home so they could heal me and I refused.”

“Only once?”

“Yeah.”

Danny floors it between two trucks, and I look back at the cops following us. The cherries come on and I sink into my seat. I’m scared but I don’t want to hide. I would rather be chased for years than be shamed by my family for being in love.

Danny exits the highway and the two cops speed by. We’re in the country somewhere I think. We keep going on back roads and the radio is playing a shitty pop tune.

I grab for Danny’s hand when we stop at a stop light in Nowhere, CA. I can feel his heart racing. I lean over and kiss his cheek gently. He shies away from me a little.

“What?”

“Did we make the right decision?”

“Running from the cops, probably not.”

“No, not that.”

The light turns green.

“Then what.”

Danny stays stopped at the green light. He takes his hands off the wheel and leans closer to me. He takes my head in his hands and kisses me slowly. I reach for his wrists and I’m caught in the way his lips move. It’s so slow and sexy and it drives me wild.

A car beeps at us, and Danny lets go of me to drive through the intersection.

We drive through the back roads for a little longer, until we happen upon a shitty shopping centre. Danny almost loses his shit when we find a shitty furniture store, and he parks his car in lot. The lot is nearly empty, there’s almost no one here.

“Claude, please?”

“Why? Holy fuck, it’s a furniture store.”

“Please?”

“Fine.”

So he pulls me out of the car and we waltz into the store. Danny is pulling me around to all the displays and he’s fucking around, telling me how great they would look in our imaginary house. And he freaks out when we find the bedroom section of the store. There’s a manly-looking bedroom and it’s all these dark, rustic colours and I swear Danny is going to puke when he sees it. We step through that show room piece to another bedroom that’s a bunch of light blue and gold colours.

“Clo…” He’s at a loss for words. He loves it. And he flops onto the bed.

“It’s pretty.” I say. I walk over to the dresser and play with the drawers.

“Pretty? That’s all?” Danny nearly shouts. “C’mere, Clo.”

I wander towards him. He’s sitting on the edge of the bed. He pulls me closer and I’m standing between his legs. He puts his hands on my ribcage and his chin on my breast bone. He looks up at me with those eyes, oh those eyes, and smiles at me.

“This room is beautiful.” He says softly. “But you know what you are?”

“Gay as fuck?” We laugh a little. But Danny’s gaze softens.

“No, no, Clo…” Danny puts a hand on my cheek. “You are absolutely gorgeous.”

He pulls me onto the bed, and I’m on top of him. We’re both smiling and giggling and kissing each other madly. My hands are up under his shirt and he’s hot and beautiful and driving me crazy. I start kissing his neck and he kicks his legs and laughs. I lift my head and flip my hair back and look down at him. I’ve never seen him smile so big. I kiss his stupid smile.

“Danny, je t’aime.”

He puts his hands in my hair.

“Moi aussi, je t’aime, Clo.”

We lay there for a moment more and we kiss again, much slower than I’ve ever kissed someone. We hear a couple in the other bedroom and hop off the bed quickly, exiting through another door that takes us to the curtains.

We leave the store to find two cops by Danny’s car.

“Fuck.” Danny says softly. He feels his ass for his wallet. “No, we’re good.”

“Now what?”

“Bus?” Danny suggests. We link hands and run away from the store, jumping over bushes and fence lines. We spot a bus stop across the mall parking lot. We make a mad dash for it, and Danny gets bumped by a car who had to slam on its brakes for us. Danny stumbles and we keep going. There’s a cop behind the car that bumped Danny, and we run faster as the car starts making its way towards us.

“Macy’s! Go!”

We run into the department store and we’re laughing the whole way, dodging fixtures and people and strollers. I look behind us and security is chasing us. I catch up to Danny and grab his hand. We make it out onto the concourse and we keep running through the mall until we find an exit—right by a bus stop. The bus is there and we hop on. We grab a seat and fall into it, laughing and catching our breath. We link hands. I lean on him and the bus pulls away. Danny is gazing out the window.

“Dumb fucks are running the other way.” He whispers. I close my eyes and he kisses my forehead. He puts an arm around me and I just focus on the movement of the bus. I try to figure out where we’re going.

“What the fuck are you two doing?” Someone from behind us asks. I open my eyes and turn around. It’s some butch, blue-collared fuck with a hairdo that screams “I Haven’t Showered Since Tuesday”.

“Riding the bus.” Danny says. “What the fuck are _you_ doing?”

“Stop being faggots in public, there are children around here.”

“Yup, we’re technically children. So.”

“I hope both of you burn in hell.”

“Oh?” Danny looks the man over. “You may do the same if your wife figures out what you’re doing.”

“Excuse me?”

“The tan line on your ring finger, you reek of perfume, and the hickeys on your neck are unsightly. Might want to get that looked at, thank you.”

The bus stops and the man gets off the bus while swearing under his breath. Danny goes back to holding me. My heart is still racing. The bus keeps going and we end up at the main bus station hub for whatever city we’re in. We get off and Danny drags me to the front desk to buy two tickets on a bus. To where, we don’t know. He won’t tell me. The bus leaves in twenty minutes, so we raid a vending machine til the bus comes.

We get on and I lean on him again. I feel myself getting sleepy, and I don’t fight it. I fall asleep on his shoulder. I wake up to him kissing my cheek. It’s the early afternoon.

“Where are we?”

“I’m not going to tell you.”

He leads me off the bus and covers my eyes.

“Danny…”

“Just wait.”

He leads me around, and I hear people laughing at us. I fight Danny a little but he stops and lets me see. We’re at Niagara Falls.

“Danny, oh my god.” I cover my mouth and grin.

“Do you want to go up to the park or walk around like an idiot?”

I grab his hand and he run towards the park, we’re wild and free and no one can stop us. We run between trees and make it to the top of the falls. It’s beautiful. He takes my hand and pulls me close.

He kisses me quickly. On the lips. In public. Of course I get a little embarrassed but I move away from his arms to the railing by the falls. He comes up behind me and puts his hands on my hips.

“I love you, Clo.”

“I love you too, Danny.”

In that moment, I swear it’s only us by the falls. He’s holding me close and nuzzling my neck. We’re both now runaways, we only have about three hundred dollars in cash, and I’m not sure what’s next. But what is next is just us. No one else. And I’m finally proud of who I am and I’m finally done hiding. No more mop closets or sneaking around or making sure our parents are asleep when we have slumber parties. No more. No more being shamed by a religion I barely believe in, no more getting told that I’m a shitty person for loving the most amazing man in the world.

No more.

Take me to church.


End file.
